Best Digital: an international reference in post-production with immersive Atmos sound

Best Digital's facilities include two rooms dedicated to post-production with Dolby Atmos immersive sound. In addition to the large Dolby Premier Atmos room, intended for film productions, it now has the only room in Spain intended for works for authorship with the new Dolby Atmos Home Theater.

Who visits for the first time Best Digital He is surprised, above all, by the tranquility that is breathed in the unique environment in which these studios are located in Boadilla del Monte (Madrid).

Its magnificent facilities in a privileged location surrounded by countryside but with agile communications, and the experience and dedication of its professionals have turned Best Digital into one of the best post-production, dubbing and film mixing studios in all of Europe, and a top-level reference in immersive sound mixing. Dolby internationally.

Post-production in Dolby Atmos for films such as The Witches of Zugarramurdi, Torrente 5: Operation Eurovegas, Mortadelo and Filemón against Jimmy the Horny and the documentary by Joaquín Gutierrez, Guadalquivir, the first documentary mixed in Atmos or more recently the latest production by Alejandro Amenábar, Regression. In 5.1, Best Digital has provided sound to Fernando León de Aranoa's latest film, A perfect day; The minimal island by Alberto Rodríguez; the Losing the North, by Nacho G. Velilla.

Best Digital, due to the continuous updating of its technology, the high qualification of its professionals and its recognized efficiency, is one of the first dubbing, sound, subtitling and editing studios for films, series, documentaries for television, video, video games and advertising.

Maximum technical and human support

Esther Gómez, CEO at Best Digital, highlights that "those who visit us are surprised, not only by the location of the studios, but by the excellent level of our facilities, and, of course, by the magnificent sound that our rooms offer. Our philosophy is that the client has total creative freedom, so they work with the freelancer that best suits their project, limiting ourselves in this case to offering maximum technical and human support. If we value quality-price, at Best Digital we provide a “excellent relationship.”

"We have always invested in the latest technology, at the same time providing the added value of the in-house technical staff. Our philosophy is to put our experience at the disposal of our clients. We are not a mere rental of rooms. Our clients know that they have the support of professional experts at all times and that, without a doubt, is an added value especially when facing unconventional projects such as post-production in Dolby Atmos," admits Gómez.

In this regard, he recognizes that "sometimes the mixer or editor is afraid of facing an Atmos production. Therefore, we put our experience at your disposal so that you can enjoy a unique creative experience. Although Dolby Atmos is slowly taking off, it is very important to guarantee maximum sound quality regardless of whether you later intend to output from 7.1 to stereo. The survival of high-value content must be guaranteed by producing with the highest quality, both in image and sound, that the technique allows at all times."

Regarding the impact that the crisis has had on the sector, Gómez considers that "the economic situation has led many studios to lower prices. However, we have always believed that lowering prices to get jobs is bread for today and hunger for tomorrow. Obviously, with the crisis we have been forced to offer all kinds of facilities but what we are not going to do is lower quality in order to lower price. The technique has also helped to lower the cost of processes and lower the quality. We have always opted for the latter. in technology and strict quality control. Quality for us has always been untouchable.”

Another aspect that Gómez emphasizes is the full security of all the content that passes through these facilities since "we work digitally with the Aspera system, with all the material encrypted and watermarked... When it comes to physical material, we have a protected room with biometric access."

Dolby Atmos from the movie theater to the living room

Best Digital's facilities include two rooms dedicated to post-production with Dolby Atmos immersive sound. In addition to the large Dolby Premier Atmos room, intended for film productions, its facilities have just opened the only room in Spain (at the moment there are only two others in the United Kingdom and the United States) intended for work for television or Bluray with the new Dolby Atmos Home Theater.

The immersive effect of Dolby Atmos is achieved by assigning a discrete channel to each speaker, up to a maximum of 64 channels, so that the mixer can freely choose where to place each sound. This allows for a much more realistic experience, making possible the effects of displacement and direction of certain sounds towards the audience, thus making the viewer feel truly involved in the film.

Thanks to the plug-in developed by Dolby for ProTools, it is possible to very easily move any sound throughout the room with total transparency (without changing tone or timbre) thanks to the use of full frequency range speakers.

Dolby does not actually work with channels, since each speaker is independent, so we can select a sound and position it in the room at any point on an X/Y/Z axis. Another advantage of this system is its backward compatibility in terms of DCP management, since it maintains single inventory in any output configuration (with a single DCP for all versions).

Traditional surround layers for ambience (in this case positionable in space, known as “beds”) and the use of “objects” constitute the pillars of this technology. Atmos, unlike the alternative proposed by Barco with its Auro that works based on channels in 11.1 configuration, is a hybrid system since while the beds allow us to work with a traditional concept of extended channel up to 9.1, the objects can be moved throughout the room by locating or moving them at any point. In this way, we can affirm that Atmos, rather than working with channels, works with positioning, rendering the different objects in real time at the time of exhibition (with metadata in the DCP). The result is spectacularly immersive sound that highlights both subtle environments and dialogue, effects or music.

Víctor Castillo, technical director of Best Digital, points out the studio's strong commitment to Dolby Atmos. "We have risked a lot, initially we evaluated the three systems that at that time were taking off from the hands of Dolby, IMM Sound and Barco... and finally we opted for Atmos from Dolby. The professionals who have already worked with us know that we are fully involved in any project. We work very closely with our technological partner Dolby and with our clients, making their work easier when facing a project developed with a technique that is still getting started," says Castillo.

Just as Best Digital was a pioneer in 2008 in launching the first Dolby Premier room in Spain, they are now setting the pace with Dolby Atmos. Castillo recognizes that “given the strong competition that exists in the sector, we are committed to offering something different and going one step ahead of the others.”

Your Dolby Premier Atmos room has passed the strictest Dolby Laboratories certification controls that ensure that this room meets its standard down to the smallest detail in monitoring, amplification, acoustics, projection...

The room has two mixing systems in hybrid configuration. On the one hand, it has Avid Pro Tools with the 32-fader Icon D-Control control surface and, on the other, a classic AMS Neve DFC Gemini table (which serves as a table and digital matrix for both the main room and other rooms in the installation). In this way, Best Digital offers maximum flexibility to its users, with two completely different tables that can be used simultaneously, in a console configuration or as a management matrix for a Gigabit Ethernet fiber network.

A total of 42 speakers JBL (with independent amplifiers) recreate a totally immersive sound in a linear configuration with 6 db of peak headroom, thus ensuring that the amplifiers never go into saturation even in sounds like explosions or gunshots…. and all this with a completely negligible noise level in the room. To achieve this total absence of noise, not only has the acoustic treatment been taken care of in detail, but a water cooling circuit for heat and cold has also been provided under underfloor heating, thus avoiding the typical noises of air impeller systems.

On the other hand, by working with 64-bit signal processing, the room offers excellent audio quality even in large productions with more than 500 tracks, and the system's internal engine allows you to record and play a number of tracks unthinkable to date.

Best Digital's Dolby Premier Atmos room features digital projection, with a Panasonic of 10,000 lumens, and analog with a Kinoton high speed.

The minimal island, Automata y Mortadelo and Filemón against Jimmy the Horny, three of the films that received the most nominations in the last edition of the Goya Awards were mixed in these facilities. Among the nominations, the three films were candidates to win the Goya for best sound.

Finally, it should be noted that Best Digital has just opened the first Spanish room dedicated to Dolby Atmos Home Theater post-production. The room allows, like its “big sister” dedicated to cinema, to recreate surround sound using a set of 12 monitors (four on the ceiling). Both the use of objects and the approach to the mixes are similar to work for the big screen, although in this case the system's virtual room is optimized for small rooms in family or corporate environments.

With this latest addition, Best Digital presents itself as a leading studio, with the latest technology including the possibility of working with Dolby Atmos (for film exhibition or authorship), and with a top-level technical and human team capable of tackling any project, no matter how complex it may be.